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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Can a Hardened Heart toward God be Softened?

Awhile back I received a response (a comment) on an article
I had posted online entitled "The Hardening of the Human Heart" from
an individual who seemed to be truly troubled after reading the article.I quote the comment I received in its
entirety below.

"The sermon i heard was true hard
and direct from god i long disobeyed now its too late there is no way to easily
deal with this how do i how can i simply ignore what i was told knowing what i
choose to do without the power of repentence you can't simply repent i don't
want to accept its too late for me to be saved i feel fear and terror knowing
its too late for me knowing there is nothing in heaven i can do or anyone can
do to help me i am trying to grasp it but its hard for me to understand even i
honestly i don't have any words but the pain i am left with . what do i say god
remember me"

The above paragraph is a direct quote but it will be easier
to understand if you put in the proper punctuation as I take it that English is
a second language for the commentator.First of all I want to say that while I always try and write the truth
from God's word, or about God's word, nothing I write is "direct from God"
as per the commentator's words. I hope I
write the truth and try my best but in the end only the Bible can be relied
upon.

With that out of the way it is obvious the writer is in
turmoil and needs help.Since the writer
publicly used his/her name in commenting on my article I will use it here as
well since it is easier than referring to him or her, he or she.The name was Jamie.Is Jamie's case hopeless?Jamie seems to feel as though it is.I do not.

A case is hopeless when one has totally rejected Christ, is
no longer a believer, and is not the least bit concerned or worried about sin
or his ultimate destiny.Even then some
tragic event or experience in life may turn him or her back to Christ and the
gospel.The parable of the prodigal son
(Luke 15:11-32) gives us some insight to how such a thing can happen.I think we all know that the father in the
parable represents God and the younger son who goes off into prodigal living represents
sinful man who, at least for a time, rejects God.

Jesus in giving the parable says in verse 13 of this
prodigal that he "wasted his
possessions with prodigal living." (Luke 15:13 NKJV)The word "prodigal"
(Luke 15:13) is used to describe his manner of life in the New King James
Version but other translations use words like "riotous living" (ASV, KJV), "wild living" (NIV, NLT, CEV, ISV), "reckless living" (ESV), "loose living" (NASB), "dissolute living" (NRSV), and the NET Bible says "wild lifestyle."His older brother says he had devoured the
father's money with harlots (Luke 15:30 NKJV).This gives us a pretty good idea of the kind of life he had chosen to
lead.

We all know the story if we are familiar with the
Bible.The son becomes destitute to the
point of hunger (Luke 15:16) but the Bible says "when he came to himself" (Luke 15:17 NKJV) and began to
reason he determined to return to his father and confess his sins with the
implication being he had repented.This
took a great deal of humility and involved shame.All pride was destroyed and gone from his
life.He had nothing to be proud of and
he knew it.He had played the role of
the fool and had made a complete failure of things but in doing so it brought
him to his senses—"he came to
himself."He went back to where
he belonged—with his father.

We thus have a parable that shows people like Jamie that
there is hope of going back to God from a sinful lifestyle.In fact Jesus says, "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over
one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no
repentance." (Luke 15:7 NKJV)He again says, "There is joy
in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
(Luke 15:10 NKJV)Man has it in his
power to bring joy to heaven.Jamie has
power to bring joy to heaven.Heaven
cares about us.Just thinking about that
is powerful, someone cares.That is
powerful for sometimes we all are inclined to get to thinking who cares.Well, heaven cares.God the Father, Christ the Son, the Holy
Spirit, the angels, all of heaven cares.The creator cares.

Hear the Holy Spirit as he spoke in the Psalms:

"The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart-- these, O God, you
will not despise." (Psalm 51:17 NKJV)From the tone of Jamie's comments I think he/she has just such a heart,
one God will not despise.

"The Lord is near
to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."
(Psalm 34:18 NKJV)

I would say to Jamie it is not too late.God cares about you and you care or else why
are you reading religious articles?You
even say, "i don't want to accept
its too late for me to be saved."You care and for anyone who still cares it is not too late.The person who is lost because of a hardened
heart does not care.You are not in that
category.

Jamie seems to think he or she, as the case may be, cannot
repent.Anyone can repent who wills to
do so badly enough.If we are honest we
all know sin can be addictive and pleasurable, at least for a season (Heb.
11:25), and very hard to quit.Add to
that the circumstances in which we can at times find ourselves in can make it
additionally hard to repent.Let us give
some examples.

Drunkenness is a sin but it is also an addiction for some, a
physical addiction and quite possibly a psychological one as well although I am
not a psychologist.Gossip, a sin, can be
addictive.What would life be for some without
being able to gossip?Some are addicted
to adultery (they are in an adulterous marriage they refuse to repent of and
leave and admittedly it would not be easy to do); some have their own personal
idols they are addicted to whether it be money, pleasure, or whatever; some are
addicted to "selfish ambitions"
(see Gal. 5:20 NKJV); some seem to be addicted to judging others and the list
could go on and on.

I think most of us have a sin or set of sins that tempt us
greatly, our own particular weaknesses, that are a real battle to deal with.They are sins we are drawn to.I think the Hebrew writer may be talking
about this when he says, "Let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us." (Heb. 12:1 NKJV)Note the writer says of this sin or sins that
it "easily ensnares us."The CEV translation says, "So we must get
rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won't let
go." (Heb. 12:1
CEV)The
Bible commentator Albert Barnes says in reference to this verse, "Every
man has one or more weak points in his character; and it is there that he is
particularly exposed."(Albert
Barnes, Commentary on Hebrews, 12:1)I believe Barnes is right.The
sin that just won't let go, as per the CEV translation, is the sin we are drawn
to that tempts us continually and which because of that we have to battle
against day in and day out.

It is not at all easy to resist the temptation directed
toward our weakness but we can gain the victory over temptation and sin through
faith in Christ and his strength.While
it is very hard we all know that there have been many who were drunkards,
addicted to alcohol, who have successfully been rehabilitated but they fight
the battle continually against the urge to drink.

I personally know of a Christian couple who ended their
adulterous marriage because of their dedication to Christ and doing what is
right.I think they were married before
becoming Christians and one or the other of them did not have a scriptural
divorce thus when they married they entered into a state of adultery.Upon learning the truth about marriage and
what constitutes adultery they saw what they must do and did the right thing
unlike Herod and Herodias.They remain
friends and are members of the same congregation.They no longer are married nor do they live
together.

Repentance can certainly be very hard.It had to be terribly hard for the two
Christians I just mentioned but here is another example, a Bible example,
showing how difficult repentance can be.Remember the rich young ruler of Mark 10:17-22 (see also Matt. 19:16-22
and Luke 18:18-23)?He truly wanted to
inherit eternal life.The Bible also
says Jesus loved him (Mark 10:21).Even
so when Jesus told the young ruler he lacked one thing (knowing the young man
loved his wealth) and told him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and
then come follow him the Bible says this made the rich young ruler sad and he
went away grieved.It is or can be very
hard to make God number one in our life.Money had become an idol for this young man and in the end he loved it
more than Christ, even more than acquiring eternal life.

We do people a disfavor when we say or imply that repentance
is easy and that it is easy to resist temptation and sin.If it was easy to resist temptation and sin
we could live sinless lives once we acquired the proper knowledge and yet we
all do things on occasion that trouble us for we know we were in the wrong and
did that which was not right in God's eyes.Neither Jamie nor anyone else is ever going to live sinlessly no matter
how dedicated they may be to living a holy and godly life.We all sin (1 John 1:8) and chances are when
we do most of the time it will be in the realm where we are weakest and most
prone to sin.Those sins that don't ever
tempt us, say murder for example, are not the kind of sins we are going to
commit.

Jamie says "without
the power of repentence you can't simply repent."I am not sure what is meant by the power
of repentance but suspect what is meant is the will to repent.There is no magical power of repentance given
to anyone by God.He gives motives for
repentance, encouragement for repentance, blessings for repentance, but does
not give one person a power to repent that is not available to all
persons.The power of repentance lies in
the will of man.Repentance is a
personal choice; it is an individual decision.As I have already said it can be a real battle to repent but it is not
impossible for any of us.It is a
choice.

We must all forget our past.It doesn't matter what a no account you may have been.It doesn't matter how sinful your life has
been.It doesn't matter what the world
may think of you.None of that
matters.God made each of us in his own
image and wants us all to be saved (see 2 Peter 3:9).He wants us all to come to repentance.He "desires
all men to be saved." (1 Tim. 2:4 NKJV)

Even Christians must continually be repenting of sin.David Lipscomb once said he doubted that any
man ever lived a single day without sin.Without trying to make myself a judge of men I suspect he came very
close to the truth in that statement.In
fact, the better Bible student you are, the more knowledge you have, the more
you realize how short you come in being what God wants you to be and the easier
it is to see the sin you do have and must overcome.

I also want to rid Jamie of any idea that if you truly
repented of a sin that once you did so you would never ever again commit that
same sin.It doesn't work that way even
though that is the ideal.The difference
between the person who has repented and the one who has not is that the one who
has repented fights the temptation and resists committing the sin.He or she is not always successful in doing
so but they fight the fight.The one who
has not repented does not battle temptation at all but readily gives in and
engages in the sin.

God does give the Christian help."No
temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but
with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to
bear it."(1 Cor. 10:13
NKJV)Most translations use the term
"endure it" rather than
"bear it" at the end of the
verse.I like that better for not only
is it true to the Greek (both terms are) but it also tells it like we
experience it.Temptation to sin is
something we endure, not something we like or enjoy, for we know when we are
tempted it is no fun.Our spirit is
telling us to resist while our flesh is telling us go ahead and do the
sin.However, the main point of the
verse is that there is a way of escape, of getting away if we will take it, so it
becomes a matter of our own will.We can
escape if we are willing.We can win the
battle of temptation.

Finally, what does one do if he fails and gives into
temptation?He gets up, dusts himself
off so to speak, and says I will not give up but try again to live
faithfully.Of course, he must seek
God's forgiveness for the sin he has committed by a true repentance and
complying with God's other demands for forgiveness which vary with whether one
has never obeyed the gospel or has obeyed and has sinned as a Christian.

Well, what if after doing that he commits the same sin
again?The answer is he does the same
thing again as he did the first time in seeking forgiveness.One only obeys the gospel once but one seeks
through repentance and confession of sin God's forgiveness many times
throughout one's life.The one thing you
never do is give up.Never ever give
up.(See my article entitled "Never
Give Up" on my web site.)Once you
give up you are done and lost.

In closing I would say to Jamie and all who may feel like he
or she does that God is saying to him/her what he says to all:

"For He
says:'In an acceptable time I have
heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.'Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now
is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:2 NKJV)

Jamie, now is the day of salvation for you, now while you
have life and breath.

Good Bible Study Sites

YouTube

I have gotten a lot of good out of listening to lectures by the following Christian apologists on YouTube. Like C. S. Lewis they deal little with doctrine, almost exclusively with apologetics. I am sure I would not agree with them on some issues of doctrine, in fact I know I don't, but they do a great job on apologetics.

Ravi ZachariasGary HabermasJohn LennoxMichael Ramsden

I could mention others I listen to but these men provide a good starting point. Just do a search on their names in YouTube's search engine to find their lectures.